Reading and Listening

If we are to transcend our current situation in life, it is necessary to reach beyond that situation. To change is to allow ourselves to be pulled away from the current trap by something external. When we find something that feels beautiful, pleasant, or loving that just might do the pulling, then change can feel easy and wonderful.

One of the best ways to allow change into your life is to travel, which I believe is essential to anyone's journey of becoming who they are and fulfilling their life purpose. Travel allows us the opportunity to immediately step away from our routines and to replace the familiar with the unfamiliar. This has the effect of opening to mind to thoughts and ideas that come from beyond the restrictions of our day-to-day lives. Unfortunately, most of us cannot travel as often as we would like.

Another way to reach beyond our limited perceptions and influences is to read, to listen to podcasts, and to watch the speeches of those who are capable of leading and inspiring. To consume the right content each day is to feed your growth and development, which is to fuel your inspiration and passion, which is to open the way for true happiness and fulfillment. When I stop reading, I stagnate and I tend toward depression. I lose faith in myself and my purpose until days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months without any remarkable progress toward anything. But when I read, when I listen to the right podcasts, and when I watch inspired speakers sharing their wisdom, then I feel a massive shift in me and a sort of opening-up. I find the courage to move forward, to try something new, and to look beyond what I once thought were limitations. To read is to unlock the ability to dream. Nothing great can be accomplished without a dream.

The purpose of my work is to help brands dream to change the lives of their customers by making it possible for them to meet each other, to talk together, to share experiences together, and to explore together. As beautiful and worthwhile as this work is, it is not easy for the simple reason that it requires faith in a dream that may feel quite different from the status quo. Each time I succeed in this mission, it will not be my individual success at all; rather, the success of a small tribe of inspired people doing something remarkable together. Those people are going to need to find those books, those podcasts, those speakers, and those beautiful ideas which will gently pull them away from their limited beliefs and mindless routines. Those unique heretics, renegades, and linchpins I work with are going to need to call upon the timeless wisdom of so many others who have gone before them and who have, themselves, learned from the best and then gone on to share the wisdom gained through their own successes and failures.

So if we are going to find the strength to even try, let alone accomplish something great, then we will need daily help and inspiration. Recently, I have looked to great minds like Tim Ferriss, Seth Godin, Tony Robbins, Paulo Coelho, James Altucher, Milan Kundera, Don Miguel Ruiz, Erich Fromm, Ryan Holiday, Austin Keleon, and so many others to open my channels of thought and spirit and to help me walk the path of what I am meant to do in this world.

As I write on this blog, and as I personally get to know each of you who I will meet along this remarkable journey, I want to help you find those brilliant works which will open your heart, mind and soul. I want to show you the stuff that will gently pull you into the beautiful future you were meant for (just as you make suggestions for me). So get your Kindle charged and clear some memory from your smartphone. Recommendations coming shortly.

#books #reading